Nine months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 303. Yesterday, I talked about appreciating yourself and doing You. Today is a new day.
In the last year I've been making effort to being more confident, eating healthier, maintaining my physical condition, and working on improving various skills. In this year of mindfulness I've done a lot of thinking on what I'm "lacking" and what I can do to turn my weaknesses into strengths. For example, I think A LOT. I'm always so inside my head that I often take a long time to actually do something. While that can be a weakness in some regard, it's also a strength in that I generally know what I'm getting myself into and I've been protected as a result. However, being too careful can also make me miss out on a lot of opportunities. So finding the right balance between calculating and outgoing is something I've been working on. That's pretty much what life is about though - balance.
In terms of my goals, I've come to Japan, I got myself a steady job, I found a place I enjoy living in (my apartment's not perfect, but I LOVE having my own digs), and I'm steadily making progress on my fitness. Does that mean I don't need to work any harder? That I'm good enough? Well yeah, but at the same time, I know there's so much more I can still do and I want to see exactly what that is and where it will take me. Learning my limits and learning from them is what makes life exciting for me.
When reflecting on how far I've come and what I want to accomplish, it's a long road, but taking it one step at a time makes it less daunting and more of a life-long pursuit than a mid-term final that's due next week. Our life's work, our magnum opus, isn't worth points. It's not a test. It's something we've lived our life for. It's the accumulation of everything we've learned expressed succinctly and elegantly in a single body of work. The thing is, each piece, in its own way, is a Mona Lisa when we put our heart into it. The point of creating new goals is to motivate us to work toward something; but they also give us a checkpoint to mark when looking back on our progress.
There's always another goal to pursue and new roads yet to be explored. For this new year, I want to improve my piano improvisation skills. I want to actually make my youtube channel (still working on ideas and thinking about my theme as well as the content). I might get LASIK. I want to eventually start my own business. Maybe start a podcast? Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
Set your sights high and do the best you can. If you can, try to make a checklist to get a better understanding of what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to make it happen.
Peace
"No matter how many goals you have achieves, you must set your sights on a higher one." - Jessica SavitchI was messaging one of my friends on Facebook and she mentioned how much I had changed in the last year. She said that I was less shy and more outgoing and how I became more lean and muscular. She told me, "I feel like you took into account who you WANTED to be and actually made it happen". Those words really stuck to me because it showed me that I was making a lot more progress than I had thought.
In the last year I've been making effort to being more confident, eating healthier, maintaining my physical condition, and working on improving various skills. In this year of mindfulness I've done a lot of thinking on what I'm "lacking" and what I can do to turn my weaknesses into strengths. For example, I think A LOT. I'm always so inside my head that I often take a long time to actually do something. While that can be a weakness in some regard, it's also a strength in that I generally know what I'm getting myself into and I've been protected as a result. However, being too careful can also make me miss out on a lot of opportunities. So finding the right balance between calculating and outgoing is something I've been working on. That's pretty much what life is about though - balance.
In terms of my goals, I've come to Japan, I got myself a steady job, I found a place I enjoy living in (my apartment's not perfect, but I LOVE having my own digs), and I'm steadily making progress on my fitness. Does that mean I don't need to work any harder? That I'm good enough? Well yeah, but at the same time, I know there's so much more I can still do and I want to see exactly what that is and where it will take me. Learning my limits and learning from them is what makes life exciting for me.
When reflecting on how far I've come and what I want to accomplish, it's a long road, but taking it one step at a time makes it less daunting and more of a life-long pursuit than a mid-term final that's due next week. Our life's work, our magnum opus, isn't worth points. It's not a test. It's something we've lived our life for. It's the accumulation of everything we've learned expressed succinctly and elegantly in a single body of work. The thing is, each piece, in its own way, is a Mona Lisa when we put our heart into it. The point of creating new goals is to motivate us to work toward something; but they also give us a checkpoint to mark when looking back on our progress.
There's always another goal to pursue and new roads yet to be explored. For this new year, I want to improve my piano improvisation skills. I want to actually make my youtube channel (still working on ideas and thinking about my theme as well as the content). I might get LASIK. I want to eventually start my own business. Maybe start a podcast? Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
Set your sights high and do the best you can. If you can, try to make a checklist to get a better understanding of what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to make it happen.
Peace
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| Whatever your goals are, write them down. Look at them when you can to remind yourself of them. That's the mission. |
What are you working toward?
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